Yes. Everything was going according to plan. The two princesses had maneuvered their ships so that only one ship each was outside the city; orbiting at a distance. They were both most likely the flagships of the Sun and Moon princesses.

Pity that they weren’t in the fray themselves, it would make things easier. Oh well, time to implement stage four.

“Activate.”

***

The gargoyle teams emerged from the underground. They had snuck out through the sewer systems. Inside the city the fleet of ships fought with a passion not seen since the griffon wars thousands of years ago.

The gargoyle looked at the pad in his hand. Green lights; they were ready. He pulled up the activation screen and entered in the code. He looked at the blue button before him.

Looking at his companions he smiled deviously. He watched the scene unfold as he pressed the button.

***

Soarin prepared to board his craft. He and his Shadowbolts resided on The Eclipse itself. The hanger doors opened above him. He pulled on his helmet and closed the cockpit of his fighter.

In a few minutes he was in the air. His squad was close behind. He zoomed in on his HUD. Another group of Solar fighters was heading into the city also. Spitfire.

He was only three miles away when it happened. Beams of energy from all over the city’s high rise towers shot towards The Horn. They all converged on the building’s top. A larger, center beam shot into the sky. It spread out in to a dome that lowered around the city. The edges cut into the ground with a blue fire. The ponies still in the city were trapped. The fighting stopped as they all looked up to observe the strange phenomena.

The dome’s field instantly collapsed onto the tower before exploding outward in a brilliant flash of light and power. The buildings nearest to the blast were instantly vaporized. The shockwave continued outward radiating over the city and its combatants. Everything the wave hit was violently destroyed in a flash. The carnage continued to the edge of the city before the wave’s explosive power dispersed. The wave itself continued on impacting the two remaining vessels.

Sensors and communications relays, every system was damaged to some degree. The fighters not in the city were forced back toward their ships. In one move the militaries of the Solar Empire and The New Lunar Republic were crippled.

***

Celestia was terrified for the first time in years. The city was gone. It couldn’t have been a Lunar weapon as Luna’s ships were destroyed too. She had her own problems to worry about. Her last ship was crippled. Sensors were not functional, same with communications, the engines were offline.

The bridge was in chaos.

“Weapons offline, the communications relay is not functioning, weapons are offline, engines are not functioning,” said the system’s manager.

“Did…did any of our fighters survive?” The princess asked.

“Spitfire was heading into the city at the time of the blast, but it appears that she and her squad are alive.”

“Flash an emergency recall.”

Search lights on damaged dreadnought flashed the message.

***

Spitfire struggled to keep her fighter aloft. Her entire squad was having the same problems as her. Slowly she and her squad turned away from the smoldering crater that was once Stalliongrad. A light flashed to her right. The Daylight Flare was attempting to contact them. The message was simple; recall.

“Alright guys the flare called us back to the barn so try not to die on the way there,” She called. The formation headed back to the ship.

***

“So what you’re telling me is that we’re at the mercy of the wind?” Luna asked.

“Well yes,” her science officer replied, “Without engines we can’t move under our own power. Maneuvering thrusters won’t do anything against this wind.”

“Can we use a spell to move?”

“Unless you have an army of unicorns that know a level five wind spell.”

The princess sighed, “Then get me a map and recall the fighters.”

***

“What’s our current heading?”

“Well since all the paper records were destroyed when that shock wave hit us, we basically have no idea,” the navigation officer said, “And the computer core is out of commission for now we’re basically at the mercy of the winds. It’s a miracle that the spell holding this ship up didn’t break.”

“Could we use all the fighters and transports to push us?” asked Celestia.

“No, one engine used to move this behemoth produced more thrust than all the aircraft this ship carries combined. That along with the fact that it takes a minimum of four engines to even move this hulk a few feet we won’t get anywhere,” the chief engineer said.

“Then I guess we’re stuck wherever the wind dumps us.”

***

The two remnants of the Solar and Lunar fleets drifted into the nearby mountains. Unseen by each other they had no idea that their course was plotted and watched by them.

***

Oh, now I see what you did. YOU JUST DESTROYED CLOSE TO 200,000 LIFE FORMS!

I didn’t do anything. As you are so keen on pointing out Father Sir, he did that. But since Em created him she does share part of the blame.

Well then what happens next?

You see into the future, find out yourself.

You’re a real bitch.

***

John awoke with a headache. He sat up and an ice pack fell onto his lap. He felt his head. A bandage was wrapped around it. He tapped the bandage and immediately saw stars.

“Ow,” he said, looking around. He was in Twilight’s library on the couch. Two ponies came out of the kitchen.

“Oh good you’re awake,” Twilight said.

“How ya feeling big guy?” asked Vinyl.

“Well my head hurts like hell but that’s about it,” John responded.

“Well at least the healing spell worked,” Twilight said.

“Why? What happened?”

“Well you had a few broken ribs and a concussion from the impact of Rainbow Dash’s crash landing,” Vinyl explained.

Rainbow walked in with her head down. When she noticed John looking at her she paled and looked at the floor again.

“I…I-I… I’m sorry,” She said despondently. A single tear came down her face, “Please forgive me.”

A lump formed in John’s throat, “Why are you sorry? It was an accident.”

Rainbow looked up, her eyes beginning to water, “B-b but aren’t you mad? I hurt you really badly.”

“No, I’m not. If it makes you feel better, I forgive you; now come here you nutty Pegasus you,” John smiled at her.

Her confidence returning, she slowly approached him. John held out his arms and let Rainbow fall into them in a hug.

“Friends?” John asked.

“Friends,” Rainbow responded happily.

After what seemed like an eternity Rainbow let go.

“Aw, you guys look so cute together,” Vinyl teased.

John stuck his tongue out at her with a grin.

“So, Rainbow, you coming to opening night of The Zone on Friday?” John asked.

“I guess; are you going to be there?”

“Heck yeah!” Vinyl shouted, “He’s my coDJ now.”

“You got a job?” Twilight asked, “That’s wonderful.”

“Yup, full time with Scratch. A little confused about the hours since she sleeps like a rock so I show up whenever.”

Vinyl turned red at mention of her sleeping habits.

John sat up, putting his feet on the floor. He rubbed the top of Rainbow’s head affectionately, feeling the soft scruff of her mane. She closed her eyes and smiled, rubbing against his hand.

“So, you up for a race today?” John asked.

“Sure,” Rainbow yipped, “this time I will beat you and Lightning.”

“Well your race will have to wait until tomorrow,” Twilight said, “You need some time to let your head heal before I let you fly that contraption or Lightning as you call it.”

“UH, FINE,” Both John and Rainbow say. Looking at each other they mutually blush. After a long silence John spoke up.

“So, what can I do today?”

“Nothing too athletic or exertive,” Twilight responded.

“Fine, I guess I’ll just hang out for today.”

After eating some lunch John headed out saying goodbye to Rainbow and Twilight he decided to find something to do. He pulled his pair of aviator sunglasses out of his pocket along with his phone and headphones. Putting on some music he decided to lay back and relax. He headed over to Ponyville Park and found a tree and climbed into it. Lying down on the branch he observed the scene of peace before him. For the first time in his life, he wasn’t on his toes, looking over his shoulder, he could let his guard down. His rock hard exterior had been shattered when he came into this new world. He could feel things here.

As a soldier he had very little room to feel much of anything. Most of his friends had been killed in combat so he finally stopped making them. But here he was at peace. For now.

As he drifted off in his perch his thoughts were occupied by a certain rainbow manned, cyan Pegasus.

***

Rainbow Dash watched John from above on her cloud. Every time she saw him she felt strange. She couldn’t place her hoof on it but she felt like she could be herself around him. When she found out what kind of damage she did to him, her heart fell. She expected him to be mad at her or worse. But he forgave her as simply as someone would say hello.

While he was an entirely different species as her, he didn’t seem to let that stop him when he made friends. He never said where he was from or what he did in his old world that made him fly that strange thing or Lightning. Did it matter? Would he hurt anyone? No. If he did he would have done so already. He wouldn’t have made friends with everypony. Rainbow wouldn’t have fallen in-Wait what?

Did she just admit to herself that she had feelings for him? Did she? What did she see in him? He wasn’t a pony but his personality was attractive. He had a fun loving aspect about him. He wasn’t too bad looking either. Every time she was around him she felt butterflies in her stomach. Her heart fluttered whenever he looked at her. Who was she kidding? She liked him. She liked him a lot. But did he feel the same? Would he be disgusted if she told her feelings to him? Her thoughts were interrupted as she leaned over the edge of the cloud and fell.

***

John awoke to a shout. He jumped up and looked for where the noise came from. He looked down at the ground and saw a cyan Pegasus sprawled along the grass. She got up.

“Well hello there,” John smiled warmly at her from his perch, “may I ask what you’re doing falling out of the sky like that?”

“Oh uh, nothing,” Rainbow replied, quickly getting up and dusting herself off.

“You’re a funny Pegasus, you know,” John laughed.

Rainbow blushed, “Really?”

“Yeah; you’re fun to be around.”

Rainbow rubbed the back of her mane.

“Here,” John said, hopping down from the tree, “why don’t you pull up a seat and relax.”

Rainbow sat on her haunches next to John under the tree. The sun was beginning to go down.

“Can I ask you a question?” Rainbow asked.

“Shoot.”

“What did you do in the human world? I mean, do humans normally fly around in strange contraptions like that?”

John sighed, he knew this was coming, “I was a soldier. My country went to war for a stupid reason and began to draft people into the military. I ended up becoming a pilot in the Air Force. As a soldier it was my job to kill,” John began to choke up; moving away from Rainbow.

“I was given a plane and was forced to kill or be killed. A lot of my friends I made died around me so I eventually stopped making them. I hated the war. It made me do horrible things. It made me k…k…kill others. It turned me into a monster,” John put his face in his hands, tears flowing down his face.

“If you don’t want to be around me now I understand.”

Rainbow stared at him, tears in her eyes too. He was a soldier. Like the other ponies that had fought in this terrible war he was forced to kill. But she could see it in his eyes, he had never wanted that. He never wanted to kill anyone. She felt sorry for him. She felt bad seeing him like that.

John felt a hoof on his shoulder. He looked up. Rainbow had scooted over and put her hoof around him. She gave him a comforting smile, “I don’t care about that. I don’t care how you were a soldier. I like you the way you are.”

“You what?”

“I… I… I really like you,” Rainbow stuttered, blushing terribly. She looked at the ground

Rainbow liked him. No one had ever said that to him before. Hell, people barely talked to him let alone confess themselves to him. He finally found his voice.

“B…b…but why me? I’m not even a pony.”

“I don’t care about that. I like you for you. You… you make me feel like I can be myself around you. You make me feel happy. I don’t know why and I don’t care,” Rainbow smiled, still red as an apple.

John stared at her in awe. Suddenly it hit him. She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. That was why he kept dreaming about her. He’d never found love on earth. Hell, he’d never been happy on earth. But here, with her, he was the happiest man alive. He didn’t care that she was a pony. He liked her for how she made him feel. She made him feel happy, alive, not a cold, hard, rock. He could finally feel around her.

“I…I…I,” John stuttered.

Next Chapter: Chapter 10. Revelations Estimated time remaining: 19 Minutes